


I Have Waited All These Years

by lostin_space



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 10:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20655683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostin_space/pseuds/lostin_space
Summary: In world where you can telepathically communicate with you soulmate, Alex waits patiently.





	I Have Waited All These Years

**Author's Note:**

> from a soulmates prompt list: "You and your soulmate can communicate telepathically but you cannot tell them your name or your location until you’ve met them."

For the first seven years of Alex Manes’ life, he had accepted he was the loneliest boy on Earth.

Everyone he had ever met had been in contact with their soulmate for as long as they could remember, but not him. He would spend late nights reaching out with his mind for anyone who was there, but he couldn’t find anything. At 6, he found a large book with too many words he didn’t understand on the reasons why you might not hear your soulmate. The one that stood out to him was that they might not be born yet.

That scared Alex and each day that passed, it scared him more. He didn’t _want_ to be this much older than his soulmate. He wanted to be the same age or only a couple years off like almost everyone else. He didn’t want to be old when he found his person.

Five days after his seventh birthday, he felt something in his mind. It wasn’t words, but it was a presence that hadn’t been there before. It scared him originally, but Liz and Maria both assured him that’s how he was _supposed_ to feel. He just didn’t know because he had never had it; he hadn’t realized what he was going without.

For days, it went without a word. He would try to speak to whoever was on the other end, but nothing returned. It only proved to him that he was speaking to a baby which just wasn’t fair. Then when it eventually started speaking a week or two later, it wasn’t in English. He was even more annoyed.

Alex told his mom some of the language his soulmate spoke and asked if she had any idea what it was. She didn’t and so they asked his dad. The look on his face told him he should never bring it up again and he didn’t.

Soon, though, after a few months, the voice began to speak in English. It was slow, but it very quickly became fluent. Alex was happier than ever and even happier to keep it to himself. It felt like his one special thing.

Alex’s soulmate was smart, too smart. Alex had gone to sleep more than one night over the next few years listening to his soulmate read him complex research on the history of something and rattle off equations and calculations to who knows what. He loved it nonetheless, though, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t use him to cheat on a few math tests.

It was nights when it was less fun. His soulmate tried hard to hide it, but he got hurt a lot. He didn’t explain, but Alex had listened to nights and nights of him crying and lying that he was okay. It hurt Alex that he couldn’t help whatever was wrong, even if he himself had spent his fair share of nights doing the same due to his father.

It wasn’t until he was 11 that he realized he had badly misunderstood the situation. On the very first day of school, a boy with tightly cropped curls with baggy clothes showed up and Alex just knew. When he introduced himself for the first time and he heard the voice out loud, he felt like his whole life was made. He said his name was Michael and offered no explanation on how he had only appeared when he was seven.

Neither of them really spoke in person for the next few years, though. It felt awkward. They had spent so many years in each others minds that it didn’t feel the same to say those things out loud. Alex stayed by Maria and Liz while Michael stayed by Isobel and Max. It worked fine. They pretended they weren’t soulmates in person and, at night, they could tell each other whatever they wanted. Sort of.

Michael’s regular night crying had escalated to, on multiple occasions, Alex hearing nothing but horrific screams of pain in his mind. He knew Michael didn’t let him hear on purpose and he would act like it didn’t happen after, but in those moments, Alex was nothing short of debilitated. He could be putting up dishes or taking out the trash or doing homework and suddenly he’d have to lock himself away and let the helplessness take over as he weakly tried to console the boy who had consoled him all the time.

When they were fifteen, Alex decided he didn’t want to hide anymore. He didn’t care who knew his soulmate was a boy and told both Maria and Liz this proudly. He didn’t mention it was Michael, the boy who got in fights and smoked weed behind the bleachers, yet still managed to out-do Liz on any test. Michael had said he wasn’t ready for that yet and Alex didn’t push, continuing to give him space in person while letting himself fall in love with him in his mind.

The regular screams stopped when they were 17 and Alex wanted to thank whoever urged them to go away. Except he discovered they went away because Michael had taken to living in his truck rather than in a home. He was torn. He didn’t want him to be homeless, but he sure as hell didn’t want him to be tortured. Alex understood torture well enough to know he didn’t want that for his soulmate.

“There’s a shed behind my house,” he told him one day even knowing they hadn’t spoken in person in years, “If you need somewhere to go.”

It took a few weeks and Alex had almost forgotten that he had even offered when he heard that voice in his head say _“I’m here”_ and his heart was pounding. This was his invitation to be alone in the same room as his person.

He went to him eagerly.

The night didn’t amount to much other than listening to Michael play the guitar for him and watching him write out all the equations he’d been going over in their shared thoughts for years. Alex tried to kiss him, but he looked away and that was alright. He had said he wasn’t ready and no matter how much time had passed, he could give him that.

The next day, though, Michael came to his work to talk. Considering the night before had been the first night Michael hadn’t spent talking to him, Alex was convinced he was going to be told bad news. He had read books about people who rejected their soulmates, who would get surgery to remove the part of the brain that connected them in hopes that it would cut off the mental tie. Alex was so scared he was going to be told that’s what this was. Except it wasn’t.

No one he knew had kissed their soulmate yet, so he didn’t know it was going to feel like something straight out of a storybook. The moment his lips touched Michael’s, it seemed to melt their minds together as well. He was closer to him mentally, emotionally, physically than he had ever been with anyone and it was so overwhelming that neither of them could think of anything other than the need to get closer.

The night in the shed was otherworldly and, while he still planned to keep the identity of his man a secret, he couldn’t wait to tell Liz and Maria. Sex with your soulmate was better than anything under the sun. He couldn’t even think of a comparison it was that mind-shattering.

“I love you,” Michael admitted into his mind.

“I love you,” Alex admitted out loud, the breath between them feeling light and easy. They were light and easy. They were happy.

Happy for a moment.

Alex didn’t notice his father had even appeared until Michael was torn out of his arms. He watched in nothing but shock and confusion and fear and horror as Michael was dragged away into the night.

Alex didn’t hear the voice in his head after that.

**Author's Note:**

> also on my tumblr: spaceskam


End file.
